Pre and Post Cancer
There is a picture of me around here from back when we were dating. My then boyfriend-now-husband asked me for a framed photo for an occasion birthday/Christmas done by a professional photographer. So I went to a local studio and had a picture done where I look young and healthy. The picture has been some place packed away for a while but now is featured prominently in his office, also know as our second bedroom.As I walk by that picture these days, more frequently now considering where it is now positioned, I contemplate, me post cancer. In the picture I have long hair with natural blonde highlights. I was a goodthirty fo...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - November 27, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: aging coping happiness marriage medical crap pictures Source Type: blogs
Changing Stressors
As life goes on, my stressors have changed. Or maybe just the list gets rearranged. When I first started blogging, breast cancer was my primary concern. But then my health started to fall apart and things have changed.At my breast cancer diagnosis, I quickly prepared myself to cope with breast cancer and I came up with a plan - support groups, etc. And I dealt with it. Then I got gall stones and had my gall bladder out. Then I found out I should be seeing an endocrinologist about my thyroid cancer which made it harder for me to ignore it. When I went to one she sent me for an ultrasound which found some thing on the t...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - July 7, 2016 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer bonds stress support Source Type: blogs
Maybe health costs should be a quality measure
How do we measure a doctor? Hospital length of stay? Infection rate? Flu shot compliance? Waiting time? These reality surrogates do not tell us how a patient feels or the quality of life. They are complex to measure, require major data crunching and may not focus on an individual physician. This week, two patients reminded me of a basic screening tool for good care: How much is the bill?
15 years ago, I took care of Melissa for gallbladder cancer. She received surgery, radiation and has been in remission ever since. In fact, because she has no need of a grouchy oncologist, I have not seen her in years. Melissa works full ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 25, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: James C. Salwitz, MD Tags: Conditions Cancer Source Type: blogs
Productivity? In Healthcare?
By JOE FLOWER
Obamacare is built on the assumption that healthcare can be more productive, that we can squeeze more health per dollar out to the system that is built to give it to us. Practically everything I write is based on the same idea — big time. I believe we could do healthcare better for half the money we pour into it now.
There is a widely-cited theory that this is fundamentally impossible, popularized by William Baumol, a New York University economist, in a 2012 book, The Cost Disease: Why Computers Get Cheaper and Health Care Doesn’t. Baumol trades on the idea that healthcare is mostly the individual lab...
Source: The Health Care Blog - June 5, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: THCB Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Do you have a WOOD deficiency?
I can hear the titters now. But, seriously, do you have a deficiency of wood fiber, i.e., cellulose?
No? Then why were you following the common advice to include breakfast cereals such as All Bran, Fiber One, and Raisin Bran that, yes, are rich in fiber, but mostly rich in the cellulose fiber that is a constituent of wood?
Cellulose fiber undoubtedly bulks up bowel movements, as humans lack the digestive apparatus to break it down. Likewise, very little cellulose is broken down by bowel flora. Cellulose therefore simply passes through, relatively inert, though suspected to yield a damaging abrasive effect on the delicate...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - January 17, 2015 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat-Free Lifestyle colon cancer fiber gluten-free grains high-fiber resistant starch Source Type: blogs
Living with medical errors
I have a picture some place of when I went for knee surgery in 2001 of me home from the hospital with a big bandage on my right knee and the word "NO" scrawled in big letters on my right knee. This was written by the surgeon after triple confirming with me.Then I have the memory of me after gall bladder surgery in 2008 where I heard the nurses talking about the excessive bruising on my abdomen after a laproscopic procedure. Basically I heard the doctor must have been really rough on me because of the size and speed at which the bruise arrived - and ho w long it hurt afterwards.In the past few years the state of Massa...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 1, 2014 Category: Cancer Tags: medical adventures procedures Source Type: blogs
Almost Alike: A Medical Cautionary Tale
Medical bracelet that says “Adrenal Insufficiency”.
I’ve been thinking about medical stuff a lot lately, so apologies if my posts tend towards the medical for a little while. It’s what happens when you suddenly realize how lucky you are to be alive, and how close you came to death. My father’s cancer has me thinking about life and death and medical care a lot, too.
In my dealings with doctors, I have found that they like the solutions to their problems to be neat and tidy. In particular, they want there to be one diagnosis that explains all the symptoms they’re observing. They want their patient...
Source: Ballastexistenz - August 26, 2014 Category: Autism Authors: Mel Baggs Tags: Adrenal insufficiency Aspiration pneumonia Bronchiectasis Communication Death Developmental disability Family Feeding tube Gastroparesis Genetics Long & detailed Medical Medical stuff Neglect Pain Perception Physical disabi Source Type: blogs
Wheat: the silent killer
I’ll hear this comment with some frequency:
“Go wheat-free for 4 weeks. If you feel no better, you can go back to it.”
While consumption of modern wheat can indeed yield health conditions with overt symptoms, such as joint pain, skin rashes, and pain and explosive diarrhea from irritable bowel syndrome, many of its effects are silent and do not result in any perceived symptoms.
The changes that underlie autoimmunity, for instance, that lead to multiple sclerosis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune hepatitis, autoimmune pancreatitis, pancreatic beta cell destruction leading t...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - August 15, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Wheat Belly Lifestyle autoimmunity blood sugar cancer gluten Inflammation Source Type: blogs
Being Overweight or Obese Raises the Risk of Cancer
This recent study provides yet another reason to make lifestyle choices that better manage your weight. If nothing else cancers thrive in an inflammatory environment, and metabolically active visceral fat tissue generates chronic inflammation. More of it is definitely worse for your long-term health in a range of ways:
Using data from general practitioner records in the UK's Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), the researchers identified 5.24 million individuals aged 16 and older who were cancer-free and had been followed for an average of 7.5 years. The risk of developing 22 of the most common cancers, which repre...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 14, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Glands and Grains
We live in a world in which endocrine disruption–the disruption of endocrine gland function–is a growing health threat.
Endocrine disruption can take many forms. It can take the form of thyroid disease provoked by industrial chemicals, such as perchlorates, the residues of synthetic fertilizers in produce. Or it could be provoked by the polybrominated dipheyl ethers flame retardants in your carpeting. Or it could be the triclosan in your antibacterial soap and hand sanitizer. It can also take the form of causing young girls to experience menstrual cycles and breast growth prematurely due to exposure to estrogen...
Source: Wheat Belly Blog - June 19, 2014 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr. Davis Tags: Health Destruction by Wheat Endocrine Gliadin Thyroid Source Type: blogs
Culture Change is Here: People are Price-Shopping for their Health Care
Culture change is here.
People are upset about rising health care prices and rising out-of-pocket expenses.
In fact, they’re so upset that they’re acting like consumers, by shopping around for their health care, and by sharing information, and by complaining about their outrage. And that’s a good thing.
When I founded clearhealthcosts.com a few years ago, I announced: “We’re bringing transparency to the health care marketplace by telling people what stuff costs.”
People laughed at us. They said it was impossible. We heard every objection you can imagine. And now: price transparency is a primary topic at confere...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - June 11, 2014 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Access Advocacy Choice Consumer Health Care Patients Source Type: blogs
What was I thinking?
In 2008, I participated in a weekend long retreat run by Casting For Recovery on Cape Cod where we learned fly fishing. It was a retreat for women with breast cancer and had such an impact on me, I went back and volunteered in 2009, 2011, and 2012 (no retreat in 2010, 2013, and 2014). The woman who lead the retreat for 15 years resigned in 2012 and the group sort of fell apart as others also resigned because they had been volunteering as long and it was time to move on.Now, me, yes, me with all my health ailments has volunteered to be the new retreat coordinator for Massachusetts and Rhode Island and get the retreat going ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - February 24, 2014 Category: Cancer Tags: breast cancer cancer bonds casting for recovery coping healing volunteer Source Type: blogs
Great article from NY Times on the benefits of snacking on nuts
well.blogs.nytimes.com Snacking Your Way to Better Health by JANE E. BRODY Dec. 9, 2013 original Jane Brody on health and aging. Nuts to you! No, that's not an insult. It's a recommendation to add nuts to your diet for the sake of your health and longevity. Consistent evidence for the health benefits of nuts has been accumulating since the early 1990s. Frequent nut consumption has been linked to a reduced risk of major chronic diseases, including heart and blood vessel disorders and Type 2 diabetes. The newest and most convincing findings, report...
Source: Dr Portnay - December 10, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Dr Portnay Source Type: blogs
